Best Athlon Mobo??

[WildTech]

Hey gang, I would really appreciate some serious input regarding motherboards that support the AMD Athlon Processor... I have tried the Asus K7 with limited success. I personally have a Asus K7 board at home that performs flawlessly, but in the shop I have had countless problems with the Asus board. Startup and shutdown problems, instability, reboots, BSOD, you name it. I'm aware that bios upgrades are available for this board, but who wants to spend the time flashing a brand new board?????? What really irritates me is the fact that nearly every system I sell revolves around the Asus platform and I have VERY RARELY had problems. At the urging of a supplier I tried the FIC SD-11 Athlon board. The FIC board hits and misses. Again, you have to flash the bios of a new board to eliminate startup and shutdown problems.....geezzzzz... The FIC board is also extremely picky about the AGP cards you install and forget about trying to use an ISA modem....

What I'm looking for is a board that comes out of the box and runs the Athlon without an hours worth of tweaking. What boards are you using for the Athlon and which ones seem to be working the best.

Thanks, WildTech

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I'd rather be lucky than smart!!

[Danrak]

I've only had to the chance to setup one Asus K7 board, and ended up takeing it out and putting in a MSI motherboard in it. My work uses the MSI motherboards, and so far no problems. I wish Asus would get it together, I would prefer to use their boards.

[WildTech]

Thanks Danrak

The MSI is the Micro Star board if my mind serves me correctly. Your the second person that tells me that this board seems to work well. Thanks for the imput..

[Danrak]

Your welcome. You'll have to post any findings on a good athlon board. The MSI board was real easy to setup, auto-detected the chip. Good luck on your search.

[LuvNCustomers]

There is nothing wrong with the ASUS board. As far as flashing the bios goes, are you trying to say that no other board has ever had a bios flash? I guess its easy to sweep a board under the rug and not try to improve it. I am thinking FIC (junk)

I have had very good luck with the ASUS K7 board without flashing the bios. The problem with Athlon and any slotA is you have to have the exact power supply it asks for. No exceptions. The only complaint I have about the board is the HUGE capacitors.

MSI boards are good too. I have found them to be a little more forgiving with a 250 watt power supply than any other board. Both boards have excellent manuals. I still think ASUS has a better website and tech help.

So far I have built about 50 Athlon machines. (2 companies worth and a few customers off the street.) I have never had a problem with a motherboard.

P.S. Cheap memory will never work either.

[WildTech]

Thanks for the reply LuvNCustomers. I'm not necessarily "sweeping anything under the rug" I just don't think that the K7 board stands up to the usual Asus standards. As I said, I use Asus almost exclusively in the line of machines that my company builds with great success. In my opinion Asus makes the best mother boards

I have been extremely careful regarding the power supply because I am fully aware of the specifications set for the Athlon. We only use Athlon approved cases and power supplies. I have contacted Asus and their tech support confirms that they have a problem with a number of their K7 boards. I have installed micron memory in all the boards in question and they still exibit problems. Like you, I have never been terribly fond of the FIC board and it too has its problems and FIC tech support also acknoledges their problems.

I fully intend to use the Asus K7 board again when they have all the bugs worked out of them. But right now I have clients that count on me to supply a dependable product and I am simply looking for a cost effective alternative board. I certainly wouldn't throw money down the drain and in our shop time is still money. Why waste time on a board that has proven its short comings???

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I'd rather be lucky than smart!!

[LuvNCustomers]

Hey Wild. Sorry about the misunderstanding. It is not us as techs sweeping problems under the rug. I am refering to the companies that will never admit they have a problem.

[WildTech]

No problem dude..... I guess I misunderstood what you were driving at. I need a vacation and a great big martini.

I had a talk with Asus tech support again. They claim that they are aware of the problems at hand and that they are on top of it in a big way. Lets hope so

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I'd rather be lucky than smart!!

[Nate]

I Have 4 ASUS Boards in my home. The K7M is the most reliable of them all. I had to go through 2 MSI boards (MSI-6167, K7 Pro) to get my new athlon up and running. It seems the AMD 756 Southbridge chipset is VERY picky on what kinds of voltage it recieves. After switching to the K7M with a VIA Southbridge I've been hosting a Half-Life LAN server for 48hrs strait not a single hiccup.

-NaTe-
"We don't know one millionth of one percent about anything" thomas edison

[tony scaccia]

I have the gigabyte GA-7 m/b which is very stable.

I do have one problem though and maybe someone can help.
when my machine is switched on from cold it does not fire up the monitor and does not attempt to boot but it makes a long bleeping noise every couple of seconds.if i hold in the power the machine shuts down.I then turn it back on and everything is fine.

I have been advised that i should have an amd approved power supply but i dont beleive that.Could some one please confirm this or give me the reason for this problem.I thought all atx power supplies were the same apart from the wattage.

My e-mail address is [email protected]

[DanV]

WildTech, If you have not already purchased your new board, I would recommend waiting a week or so for the new boards to fully hit the market. VIA has released a new chipset, KX133, which is being hailed as the best ever. The new chipset supports a 200Mhz front side bus, ATA-66 hard drives, and AGP4x. There are a couple on the market already: AOpen AK72, Epox 7KXA, and Tyan S2380. You can check out all the newest stuff at www.slota.com under the "motherboards" section.